Online realty bug bites JLL India

Realty consultant Jones Lang LaSalle India (JLL) is going online. The real estate consultant is launching an online platform that will list residential properties in metros and leading tier 2 and 3 cities for sale and purchase.

A team of on-ground consultants will close transactions for developers, end users and investors based on leads generated online.

"In line with JLL's strong emphasis on ethics and accountability, the process will also involve conducting due diligence of the projects before listing the properties on the e-commerce platform. We bring to the table an offline follow-up and transaction process to successfully service inquiries generated by digital marketing," said Ashwinder Raj Singh, CEO of residential services at JLL India.

The online platform will be headed by Singh. Formerly country head of sales and distribution at real estate portal IndiaHomes, Singh's expertise lies in the e-commerce domain with specific focus on real estate. Besides this, he is also an expert in online and offline multi-channel marketing. Singh was appointed CEO of JLL India in May 2015.

Singh added that the platform will include an online marketing team, an in-house call centre, a customised CRM, and a mobile application that will facilitate an automated sales process.

JLL India acknowledges that it is entering a space that is already crowded, but is unfazed. "The online real estate marketing space in India is currently heavily fragmented, with multiple entities involved to handle all aspects such as lead generation and firming up deals offline. Also, none of the players in this field have actual expertise and experience in real estate brokerage, which is a very people-intensive undertaking," it said in a response to an email query to VCCircle "As a result, the process as being undertaken by the various aggregators currently operating in this field lacks the benefit of transparency and genuine market knowledge," it said.

JLL, one of the country's largest professional service firms specialising in real estate, has a footprint in 11 cities including Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Chandigarh and Coimbatore. It is part of a global property consulting network.

Other players in the online real estate space include Housing.com, QuikrHomes, PropTiger, 99acres and MagicBricks.

In January this year, Quikr acquired real estate portal CommonFloor and merged it with its property listing arm QuikrHomes.

It was also reported last month that Housing.com was in talks to acquire property portal IndiaHomes.